


Poetry is the food of love?

by mathsgeek314



Category: Ackley Bridge (TV)
Genre: And Riz just really wants to finish his bio homework, Cory is struggling, M/M, Nas is also confused, Naveed is confused
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-27
Updated: 2018-07-27
Packaged: 2019-06-17 05:17:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15454146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mathsgeek314/pseuds/mathsgeek314
Summary: Cory decides to write a poem to Naveed to tell him how he feels.Riz just wants Cory to shut up about Naveed.





	Poetry is the food of love?

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to the ackley bridge discord for their help with this! Love all of you so much!!!

Cory was struggling.

It had been two weeks since he had worked out that he actually kinda liked Naveed and in those two weeks Cory had done absolutely nothing to act on this realisation.

How do you even go about telling the guy you like that you like him after you semi-rejected him after you kissed in the changing rooms? 

All Cory had done in the past two weeks was moan to Riz about what a mess he was in.

(Cory was pretty sure Riz had muttered something like “I fucking knew it” when he told Riz he was bi but, considering how chill his reaction was, Cory didn’t worry himself too much.)

“Ugh.”

Riz turned to look at Cory and groaned internally.

“Cory. I swear to God if you’re gonna just moan about Naveed again I will leave you to do the bio work alone.”

Cory shut up and turned back to his diagram of the human heart. Riz focused on his own diagram but couldn’t block out the occasional sighs the other boy kept making.

Eventually, Riz had had enough - it wasn’t like he was going to get his bio work done then anyway.

“Just talk to him for fuck’s sake,” Riz said.

“How? What would I even say? ‘Oh yeah funny story turns out I do actually like you and my semi-rejection in the corridor was complete bull’. I’d sound like a right twat.”

Riz smirked. “You always sound like a right twat.”

Cory shoved him off his stool.

\---

Later on that day, Cory and Naveed were waiting for Riz to get some books out of his locker. As he pulled his locker open, a piece of paper fell to the floor. Cory picked the paper up off the floor and skimmed it before beginning to read it aloud with a huge grin.

“Riz you’re really great  
Please take me on a date  
With you around I’ll never fear  
From your love, Razia.”

Riz stared at the piece of paper in horror.

Cory began laughing hysterically.

Naveed argued that fear didn’t even properly rhyme with Razia.

Riz was still staring at the piece of paper in horror.

\---

The second Cory sat down next to him, Riz knew something was up.

“So I’ve been thinking about that poem you’ve got.”

Riz glared at his friend and dared him to say more. Cory ignored him and kept going.

“I tried writing Naveed a poem.”

Riz choked on the sip of water he had just taken. “You what?”

“I tried to write Nav-”

“Yeah I heard that part you twat,” Riz cut in, still kind of shocked, “What for?”

“To tell him I like him,” Cory said, blushing slightly.

Riz stared at his friend and thought for a moment. Part of him just wanted to laugh at the very idea that Cory Wilson tried to write poetry to confess to a boy that he liked him. But the other part of him knew that he had to be a supportive mate - even if it meant listening to Cory’s poetry.

“Go on then,” Riz said, “show me what you’ve got.”

“Ok so,” Cory took a deep breath, “‘I like you a lot Naveed. I like you more than I hate Javid. I w-’”

“Wait no stop. Cory. Naveed doesn’t even rhyme with Javid,” Riz said.

“Oh. What about ‘I like you a lot Naveed. I like you more than I like Assassin’s Creed’?”

Riz groaned. He was going to be here for a long time.

\---

Cory watched on nervously as Naveed pulled his locker open and frowned in confusion. Naveed slowly withdrew a folded piece of paper and began to read through its contents. Cory saw his eyes widen but, before he could approach the other boy to explain the note, Naveed hurried out of the corridor.

Riz found Cory a couple minutes later still staring at Naveed’s locker and groaned internally.

He was so done with this already.

\---

Naveed was panicking.

Naveed was panicking a lot.

He sent Nas a quick text: sos

Naveed then continued to panic.

Nas replied less than a minute later: where are you?

Naveed responded with his location before staring at the piece of paper from his locker once more.

As sappy as this is Naveed,  
You might be all I’ll ever need.  
I swear you brighten up my day  
And I hope you feel this way.  
Sorry for what I said before  
I shut you out; now I’ll open the door.  
Please let me in, that’s all I need.  
I just have to say: I like you Naveed.

Just as he finished reading through the poem a fifth time, Nas burst through the door.

“You ok?” she asked, “What happened?”

Naveed slid the piece of paper over to her before saying “I think there’s a girl who likes me.”

Nas stared at him.

“WHAT?”

\---

Naveed began to consider his options.

He could tell the girl that he was sorry but he didn’t feel the same as her because he was gay. Or he could tell her that he did feel the same way and was so happy she liked him too. Or he could just say he didn’t see her like that and hope she wasn’t too upset.

Although he didn’t want to hurt the unknown girl’s feelings, Naveed decided he would be better off just rejecting her rather than either outing himself to someone else or pretending to be straight (again).

Naveed had just come to this conclusion and was thinking about how he might go about rejecting the girl who wrote the note when he heard someone calling his name.

“Naveed!”

He turned to see Cory making his way down the corridor towards him. Before Naveed could greet the other boy, Cory pulled him into an empty classroom nearby before turning to face him. Naveed suddenly realised how close the two of them were and took a step backwards.

“Cory? Why did you bring me in here?”

Cory took a deep breath before mumbling something under his breath. Naveed frowned at him and was about to ask him to repeat himself when Cory spoke again.

“What did you think of my note?”

Naveed’s jaw dropped.

\---

Cory had been incredibly confused about how Naveed reacted to his note. Sure, the poem wasn’t the best but he didn’t understand why Naveed had run off so quickly. Why would he not try to look for Cory?

Was he scared?

Was he not sure how to react?

...did Naveed not like him like that anymore?

Cory had decided he’d be better off asking these questions to Naveed rather than just thinking about how Naveed might answer. So Cory had begun his own search for Naveed.

By the end of lunch, he was pretty sure he had looked everywhere in the school and yet Naveed was nowhere to be found. That was until he caught sight of the other boy in the corridor between biology and maths.

And so, Cory called his name and dragged him into an empty classroom.

\---

“What did you think of my note?”

Naveed was confused.

Again.

“What do you mean your note?”

Cory just stared at him like he was an idiot, “The note I wrote for you, you twat. You know. With the poem and shit.”

Naveed pulled the now crumpled note out of his pocket and stared at it. Then he turned it over.

And there, on the other side of the paper, in clear writing, was the name Cory.

“You wrote the note?” Naveed said, still looking at the note.

“Yeah.” Cory stared at the floor rather than look at Naveed.

Suddenly a horrible thought popped into Naveed’s head.

“Are you...are you making fun of me? Are you making fun of me for liking you or something?”

Cory’s head shot up and he looked directly at Naveed: “Of course not!”

“Then why did you write the note?”

“Because I like you!”

The silence in the room was deafening.

Then Cory repeated himself more quietly: “Because I like you.”

Cory took a step towards Naveed and, when the other boy made no move to stop him, placed his hands on Naveed’s neck. The two of them looked into each other’s eyes for a moment, neither of them willing to say anything else. Slowly, the two of them leaned in and their lips met.

The kiss was nothing like the one in the changing rooms. That kiss had been a mix of adrenaline and excitement and confusion with neither boy really knowing why it was happening but not wanting it stop.

This kiss was completely different. It was soft and gentle but certain in a way that their first kiss hadn’t been. Both boys wanted it and both boys knew the other wanted it.

Eventually, Cory pulled away and rested his forehead against Naveed’s.

“I like you. Ok?” Cory said, looking directly into Naveed’s eyes.

“...ok,” Naveed whispered, “I like you too.”

Cory smiled.

\---

Ten minutes later, on the other side of the school, Riz received a text from Cory.

He opened it to see a blurry photo of Naveed kissing Cory on the cheek whilst Cory smiled directly at the camera.

Riz laughed at the two idiots and sent a quick text in reply before turning off his phone and finally finishing his biology homework.


End file.
